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Before I begin to share our week with you, I want to acknowledge the tragic news we received earlier this week-- 21 year old Ossining resident Gregory Jackson was involved in an incident of violence that later led to his passing. Almost a week after hearing the news of Greg's death, most of us are still without words and struggling to find meaning in this heinous act. The Ossining Police Department has been capably and professionally handling the investigation and announced last night that they have a suspect in custody, also unfortunate because he too, is from Ossining. I hope that we will all remember Greg as so many knew him-- a bright, energetic, happy young man, who was beloved by so many. We are all keeping his family and his many, many friends in our thoughts and prayers.

On Monday, I was joined by Budget Director Maddi Zachacz and Town Councilwoman/ Executive Director of IFCA Karen D'Attore at a Pattern for Progress event held on the SUNY Orange campus at Newburgh-- the view wasn't awful.

We learned about how the City of New Rochelle has managed to essentially rebuild its downtown core with private investment. We listened to three panelists who had been involved in the city's transformation, and most impressive to me was their Commissioner of Development Luiz Aragon. Luiz explained that, through the use of form based code and a standardized approval process, the city was able to get a win-win: ensuring that city residents had say over what sorts of development took place, while offering developers the sense of certainty they require to make the location attractive to them and to identify if they can acheive profitability.

It is interesting to consider how these ideas could be replicated here in Ossining. We have done many studies over the years which could certainly help us to begin to build a framework to help move in that direction.

The Town Board will be reviewing this report during a Work Session on Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 at the Courthouse at 86-88 Spring Street. If you cannot join us in person, you can stream the meeting live here, or wait until Wednesday and watch the footage on the Town's YouTube channel.